2013 Leaf Draining12V Battery

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

barretoh

Member
Joined
May 16, 2013
Messages
11
When I don't drive it for a while, my 2013 Leaf won't start. The console is completely unresponsive.

This has been happening on and off for years and I've replaced a few 12V batteries. The current one is from 2017 (but it sat unconnected for 10 months in 2019).

The last few times, in the morning when I get in, it powers up, but won't go into R. I assume this means it does not have enough 12V juice?

So then I cuss and I trickle charge it and the next day it works fine. Constantly trickle charging seems silly, you know?

How can I figure out what is draining the battery? Or is it something else?

Enquiring minds want to know. Please help.

B
 
I'll move this to one of the existing topics on the problem tonight or tomorrow.

Leaving the car plugged in after charging ends, for more than an hour or two, is the biggest, most easily preventable cause of 12 volt battery drain. Leaving an ODBII port reader plugged in and active can also do it. If the telematics was upgraded from 2G to 3G, then the new modem can do it. Then there are the Mystery Vampire Drains...
 
There is, IIRC, a second generation 3G modem that doesn't do this. You'd have to convince a dealer to install one for free or for cheap. Failing that, if you don't use the remote access features, you can disable the modem. Or you can hardwire a connector for the battery maintainer, and plug that in whenever the car will sit for more than a few hours. It should also be possible to rig an On/Off switch for the power to the modem.
 
barretoh said:
I did upgrade telematics! What's is the solution?
When?

If it was before NTB18-045 (https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2018/MC-10145516-9999.pdf) was issued, you may need to get update firmware. From what I linked to at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=531736#p531736, some engineers from Singapore were flown in to investigate a 3G TCU 12 volt battery drain issue.
 
LeftieBiker said:
I'll move this to one of the existing topics on the problem tonight or tomorrow.

Leaving the car plugged in after charging ends, for more than an hour or two, is the biggest, most easily preventable cause of 12 volt battery drain.
How about leaving the car plugged in for hours before it is charged ? Similar vampire drain ?
 
SageBrush said:
LeftieBiker said:
I'll move this to one of the existing topics on the problem tonight or tomorrow.

Leaving the car plugged in after charging ends, for more than an hour or two, is the biggest, most easily preventable cause of 12 volt battery drain.
How about leaving the car plugged in for hours before it is charged ? Similar vampire drain ?

Yes. The car periodically checks the status of the port into which the J-1772 is plugged, either way. That's less likely to cause problems, though, because a low 12 volt battery at the start of a charging session is likelier to be brought up to a functional level of charge than one that gets low afterwards.
 
I upgraded telematics in 2017 and had a lot of trouble getting it to work. I had lots of troubleshooting with Nissan techs over the phone and finally, in Nov 2017 it was back to sending me alerts when I forgot to plug in at home. Aug 2019 to March 2020 the car sat idle (12V battery disconnected). Very little use from March to Sept 2020. Regular use Sept to Oct (no problems then) and back to infrequent use now. If more than a couple of days idle, it will not start and I have to trickle charge.

I turned off sending me texts, no help. It doesn't matter if the car itself is charging or not.

I guess I'm wondering if I fried the 12V and I should be yet another one (it was purchased in 2017)? I mean, it trickle charging does work, so it's not the battery, right?

Also, I have Leaf Spy (not plugged in, of course), Does that tell me anything about this?

I guess I'm headed to the dealer (yecch).

B
 
But if the 12V battery gets drained too low, then charging (or starting) may not begin due to inadequate low voltage power supplies and relay activation during the initiation sequence. So while silly some sort of trickle charging is needed for extended non-use due to self-discharge. An unused battery loses about 5% per month. See for example this graph found at Battery University,

Ay1bwTK.jpg


In addition the extended sitting while low has caused sulfation of the plates resulting in permanent damage. Trickle charging will not correct this after the damage is done. It may still charge but there is no capacity and the voltage quickly collapses under load.
 
I can't reach that link. I get
***
Error 1011 Ray ID: 64cacf80ecb030aa • 2021-05-09 12:07:58 UTC
Access denied
What happened?
The owner of this website (www.batteryuniversity.com) does not allow hotlinking to that resource (/_img/content/storage-web-corrected.jpg).
***

I guess I'll take the NHTSA recall bulletin and show it to my dealer. Firmware update does make sense to try.

But, one more time with you experts, Is there anything I can do at home (including with Leaf Spy) to test and solve this by myself (clearly, I'm not an expert).

B
 
barretoh said:
I guess I'm wondering if I fried the 12V and I should be yet another one (it was purchased in 2017)? I mean, it trickle charging does work, so it's not the battery, right?
This alone is enough to justify replacing your 12v battery (not to mention the long periods on non-use).
 
There are pages and pages of troubleshooting this issue in the existing topics. I'll add this to one of those tonight. In short, you want to look for a 12 volt relay that is sticking On.

So if there is a firmware update for the original 3G replacement modem, does that mean I was wrong about there being a better, second iteration of that modem? Or do both exist...?
 
There are pages and pages of troubleshooting this issue in the existing topics. I'll add this to one of those tonight. In short, you want to look for a 12 volt relay that is sticking On.

I need some help, here. The site search engine is worthless, and I'm not feeling well tonight. I need a link to a topic in which the 12 volt vampire drains is discussed extensively, so I can add this topic to it...
 
barretoh said:
I can't reach that link. I get
***
Error 1011 Ray ID: 64cacf80ecb030aa • 2021-05-09 12:07:58 UTC
Access denied
What happened?
The owner of this website (www.batteryuniversity.com) does not allow hotlinking to that resource (/_img/content/storage-web-corrected.jpg).
***

I guess I'll take the NHTSA recall bulletin and show it to my dealer. Firmware update does make sense to try.

But, one more time with you experts, Is there anything I can do at home (including with Leaf Spy) to test and solve this by myself (clearly, I'm not an expert).

B

i updated my post to include the image, not sure why it wouldn't open..?

If you have a clamp on current probe then you could measure this drain current to determine if it is excessive or normal.
 
In addition to what nlspace said, you might be able to pinpoint which circuit the phantom drain is on by using the current probe in combination with pulling fuses one at a time.
 
barretoh said:
I did upgrade telematics! What's is the solution?

Thank you for replying.

B

I forget who originally posted the work-around, but removing all stored locations and then "declining" data transmission on the nav unit seemed to do the trick for me, in keeping the telematics out of the "dattery draining mode".
 
Back
Top